Well friends,
I hate to say it. I took my bike out yesterday after work to explore some rural roads like I mentioned. The first part of my trip was wonderful. Wide open back roads, nice and curvy, beautiful scenery, and fresh air. Bike was running great, handling well, and I was having a blast! I turned onto the next leg of my short 20 mile circuit, a curvy, hilly, narrow type road. Needless to say, I went a bit slower, and paid attention to caution signs. Even this was going well, albeit a little more tricky to ride. I was still doing great until I approached a sign that said 20mph sharp turn, so I slowed down to 20, went over the crest of the hill, looked left down the turn and began to lean...
Then the next thing I knew I was wedged under/against a guard rail, with my bike wedged right next to me. I'm pretty sure I hit gravel that was strewn from an adjacent road. At first I was wondering if I broke anything, but I didn't feel much except a strong nonspecific ache all over my body. My lip was bleeding a little, and shaking badly. The guy who was following me stopped and was asking if I was hurt. I said I didn't know, I couldn't think straight. Eventually a few more people stopped and got out to help. I had about 6 or 7 people come out and they checked me out for injuries, and they helped pull my bike out from under the guard rail. It turns out my gear saved my skin big time, and the only place I really got "injured" was right above the top of my boot (thank goodness for wearing boots, helmet, jacket, and gloves) where I was only wearing jeans. The rail burned my leg through my jeans and gave me a massive bump. I got up walked it off and then helped lift my bike out and up to safety. The spectacular part about my gear is that besides some dirt and minor scuffs here and there, they look pristine!
As far as the damage to the bike goes, it looked pretty catastrophic with all the dirt and grass all over it. The right side was face up but got wedged under the rail, so it got a massive scratch. The front cowling below the headlight got absolutely massacred though thankfully the headlight is intact. My left turn signal popped off due to a small crack, but the bulbs and everything are fine. The left cowling is cracked up top, has fine scratches along the side, and got a chunk the size of a quarter ripped out up top near the tank. The left tail has some fine but hardly noticeable scratches as well. And finally, the front wheel it a bit out of alignment, so with handlebars straight, the bike veers slightly to the right. Most surprisingly, my mirrors, shifter, pegs and windshield were absolutely fine!
Damage estimate, just parts? Probably somewhere around $1000-1500. I filed a claim with my insurance and they told me most likely the bike would probably end up as a total loss. NO!! The bank would then ask for all the money I owe, and my insurance would only pay about 80% which leaves me in a bad spot. So I've decided to repair it myself..Engineer powers, Activate!! Tomorrow my friend will lend me some tools to get started this weekend. First up will be realigning the front wheel. The later on I'll replace the front cowling because that is completely wrecked. I will hold off on the rest until I feel confident that I wont crash again for a while. So while my brand new bike, with a whopping 50 miles on it, is crashed, the important thing is that I am ok, beyond a small scratch and some aches and pains. Tomorrow evening I will upload damage pictures so you guys can see what a 20mph crash kind of looks like. And I guess the blog will turn to "how to repair your brand new crashed bike!"
All the best,
Pandabear
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